Canterlot Academy Trials

It wasn’t long before the hostile boats would appear on the horizon. However, Odu wasn’t yet visible on any of the vessels so Mio had to give a command of caution.

“Everyone, be careful,” he spoke into a radio which went out to all of his fellow allied boats, “Currently no visual on our target. Be sure to engage cautiously as we need him alive for questioning. I repeat: Excessive force is not recommended here.”

“Right then, let’s get these buggers capsized,” Rudy snickered as he bit down on his candy stick and crunched it, “Weapons free, boss!”

“We’re just looking for a bit of a scare. Fire when ready!”

Meanwhile, on one of the nearby boats…

Luster Dawn looked out over the side of the boat she had been placed on with her team and squinted her eyes. Sure enough, once Mio’s radio signal came through, their professor gave them a command.

“Alright, everyone. You heard him,” the unicorn stallion called everyone over to the main deck, “We’re looking to disable them as efficiently as possible to find the culprit. The abyssinian man is very dangerous and supposedly slayed a goblin.”

“...Oi, am I hearin’ that right?” Dewdrop commented out of amazement mixed with fear, “...I thought they were just a myth!”

The blind minotaur bull, Kuno, simply scoffed with his arms folded, “Hmph…and here I thought they were rumored to be indestructible. If that’s the case, then we’ll need all the power we can get.”

Noptera, the changeling stallion, eyeballed the ships from where they were approaching. “...about 40 knots left. What’s the plan, Luster?”

“Already got one,” Luster replied with a smug smile as she created an astral projection of the water via her magic in front of them. “We’re here. The enemy vessels are out that way. Dewdrop, we’ll need you to make a storm if that’s possible. Make it hard for them to navigate.”

“Yeh. I ken!” With that, the water-horse earth pony mare saluted and jumped into the water, disappearing below as she swam towards the other side of the sea like a speeding bullet with a seapony-like tail.

“Noptera, Can you take the form of a giant--”

The dark changeling had already taken off into the air, “Please. That’s foal’s play for me!”

“...that leaves us, Kuno,” Luster looked at the blindfolded minotaur, “We’ll be boarding and dealing with the agents of each vessel. Twilight sent us here because she knew we’d be able to handle this, let’s not let her down.”

“Let your concerns stay off the battlefield,” the bull cracked his knuckles which made the air around his hands explode with a small bit of gale force. “It’s time to act.”

“...Professor, you can sit back and watch,” she commented to Hassium, “Let those old bones of yours veg out as we handle this.”

The elder unicorn grumbled as he furrowed his brow, “Excuse me, young lady? I dare say, I’m merely forty years--”

BOOM!

All the sudden, a massive thunderstorm was kicked up which formed into a set of small, yet unpredictable waves as lightning struck. Everyone’s attention was stolen as the enemy vessels were all rattled by the sudden storm.

“Aha!” Dawn triumphantly called out upon the storm’s rise. “Now in three, two…”

With a magical POOF!, a dark-blue, changeling colored leviathan appeared from within the water! It was Noptera taking the form of one in order to cause disarray among the hostile boats. The sounds of gunfire and torpedoes being fired off could be heard, but Noptera’s rough exoskeleton allowed him to withstand the damage at least for a time.

“Move us in closer!” Dawn called out to the Abyssinian Navy commander piloting their boat. With the order received, their vessel was piloted directly into the waves where they’d be able to see two other boats--one on each side. “Kuno! You take the left one!” she smirked with a flash of her horn as she glanced at the boat on the right side of theirs, “This one’s mine…”

Without a word, the minotaur bull leapt onto the opposing boat. As expected, there were a few Abyssinian gangsters aboard. A few started firing off bullets from handheld SMGs, but they were somehow avoided by the minotaur’s astonishing speed for someone of his size.

CRACK!

With a swift dodge and a single punch to the gut that broke nearly every rib in the puma woman’s body, Kuno put the first one down, followed by a lion man who leapt out behind him, nearly swiping him with his claws--

But Kuno dodged this as well. Using his enhanced senses, he avoided the strike, and sent the lion man tumbling with a singular palm strike. Nearly every other cat beastman aboard wouldn’t stand a chance against the bull either, however, he immediately noticed something peculiar…

‘...Odu isn’t here. Perhaps he’s present on one of the other vessels?’

Well, on the boat that Luster Dawn had boarded…

The unicorn mare had conjured her pair of magical, hard-light axes and spun them at such high velocity that they were able to deflect the bullets they fired at her. Then without even looking, she flung one axe at the snow leopard to her right, cutting her tail in just the right place to throw off her balance and force her to drop to the deck of the ship, followed by slinging the other at the serval man to her right, slicing his knees just right to incapacitate him as well.

She then trotted up to the serval, and aimed one of her axes directly over his head with a cold, uncaring glare in her eyes, “...where’s your leader? Answer m--”

CRACK!

But before the cat man could answer, they’d be interrupted. Dawn was punched hard and took a tumble to the deck.

With a grunt, Dawn weakly looked up in their direction, and found that it was another gangster. However…it wasn’t an Abyssinian at all.

“...wait…a Diamond Dog?”